Ahead of 617 Day, a day in which WERS celebrates local talent and businesses, Web Service Coordinator, Fenton Wright, is sitting down with the artists performing to talk to them about what music and Boston means to them. Today we want to introduce or reintroduce Will, Charlie, Jack, and Patrick, Key Found, a band that has shown up around ‘ERS before, as they talk about music, playlists, and more.
Fenton: How are you guys feeling about the day?
Will: I mean, I’m from the Boston area, so, like, playing on the Boston Common is a pretty cool thing. I think first and foremost, that was the thing that struck me the most. I’m very excited to do that. And also to continue our relationship with WERS because we recorded with you guys back in the studio in February, and it was just such a great experience. So, um, just like honored to kind of be back and be selected as part of that lineup. So very excited about all those things and just kind of keeping cool people around and playing in cool places.
Fenton: You mentioned it, but what was that recording session like?
Patrick: So the director or one of the leads of outreach for scouting at WERS and she just graduated, so she’s not with them anymore. She just emailed us, I think out of the blue. She found our stuff through social media
Will: And through a good friend of ours named Topher. She pitched us for a different show through junkyard. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the junkyard.
Fenton: Yeah
Will: They do all their cool shows, but Rynn being a part of that saw our stuff get pitched, so she kind of reached out after that.
Patrick: But we know Topher pretty well, so It was kind of a mutual connection type thing.
Fenton: Then kind of with your music, how would you kind of describe your sound in a way, or like genre? I know Spotify and Apple Music will categorize things. Like I was looking at it, I’m like, it doesn’t really fully encapsulate everything.
Jack: It’s kind of reminiscent of the sound of bands like The Kinks. And obviously, I think a lot of us who are like, immersed in the Beatles music, either at an early time or like recently, and we kind of all brought influences from multiple decades, and kind of a big amalgamation of our influences from like different decades. Like, I’m very much like 60s like through and through.
That’s like my bread and butter. And then it’s like it literally just goes like 70s (Patrick), 80s (Charlie), 90s (Will), everyone is super tapped into different decades of music.
So it’s kind of cool. We all took the parts that we liked from that and put it together and made a band out of it.
Patrick: It’s a great answer. Yeah, yeah.
Fenton: I guess you kind of already answered it. But the inspirations part. How do you see that kind of like manifest whether it be different riffs that you try in practice sessions or things like that?
Jack: I think the things you listen to are in the back of your mind, and they kind of float around in there. And then when it kind of comes to those times of creativity or like spontaneous writing, whatever that you really like, you absorb, and whatever deeply touches you is going to be what comes out of your instrument, whether it’s drums, guitar, voice. So I think we kind of all probably just tap into our subconscious, like the music and the feelings and the riffs that we like, because there’s not that much thought that really goes into it.
Patrick: It’s not really a conscious thing. I feel like we’ve been asked this question a few times in the last couple of months, and it’s like more and more I realize that I’m never trying to pull from something I really love. It just kind of happens, you know, and that, you know, when you talk about the decades earlier, you can go down the line again.
I feel like we all bring a different thing or a different aspect of that to the band, which gives it that sound, but yeah, I don’t think, I think it’s ever like, oh, I’m trying to do a riff like this.
Fenton: So, which of you like, are from the Boston area?
Will: I’m the only one that’s, like, from the Boston area. I grew up 45 minutes south in Pembroke, so the South Shore kind of suburb area. Now I’m back here for school. Yeah, but these guys are all here for the past two years. They’re kind of Bostonians now.
Fenton: So you guys met at school, right?
KF: Yes, yeah
Fenton: It was at Berklee?
KF: Yeah.
Fenton: Everyone goes to Berklee, love Berklee. And so I was kind of wondering, what are your favorite things, I guess, to do around the Boston area?
Jack: So the arboretum is like some magical place in Jamaica Plain. I think it’s around like Harvard, the Arnold Arboretum, I think they call it Arnold, but it’s just awesome.
I think my favorite thing about Boston is like, you’re in the city, this big town. Then you can literally hop on a train, drive 20 minutes, whatever, and you’re in and you’re back in like nature, you’re back in the woods and there’s always an opportunity to go somewhere peaceful and give you time to miss the city and all the noise and everything.
Patrick: Yeah, and the fact there’s a lot of house shows and, I mean, there’s a lot of bands playing around that’s always fun to go to. Allston is good. When I see, like, a really good band it just makes me happy because I feel like this scene is in good hands.
Will: Yeah, I agree. I kind of also say that it’s a very, like, tight community, both in music but also outside, it’s a small city. So it’s not uncommon that you just run into people every day and like that’s like one of the coolest things, especially with the music scene here, it’s kind of like you’re only like a connection or two away from everybody, which I think is just one of the coolest things.
And it’s very student driven, which is a good and a bad thing. It sucks because a lot of people leave and go elsewhere and take their sound elsewhere, but like, it’s a very young and prosperous, growing community that’s always getting this new creative, young input, which is very, very cool.
Fenton: Yeah. Like I’ve experienced that a lot. At Emerson, we don’t do a lot of music, but just like, you know, going to the shows around Boston, you always see someone from Emerson, like, it’s super weird to me. I don’t know, like, I saw Racing Mount Pleasant at Sinclair and there were like ten Emerson kids there.
Will: And there’s probably an Emerson kid shooting video or something for the show.
Fenton: Yeah, like it’s super crazy.
Will: Yeah, there’s a nice relationship between all the colleges. I feel like in that way we kind of help each other.
Fenton: And then, um, I know you released, I believe, the new single, right?
KF: Yeah.
Fenton: It was really good. I just wanted to know, do you guys have, like, any other songs or albums? like, album? Cause I know your last album was in 2024, right? Did you have anything else planned for this year?
Will: I think we’re, I don’t know, we are obviously operating with an album in mind. We’re all very album driven people in a world full of singles. We understand that that’s kind of the way things are, and that’s like what’s working for our pace right now. I think that we all like the idea of kind of putting everything together with a bunch of new music and dropping it all at the same time,
Jack: Charlie, I think you got some good thoughts on. the recording and mixing.
Charlie: Our experience with recording has been very hit or miss for us. And for 95% of the time it’s been very miss. So we’ll end up recording the same song, like, four different times. We are never really pleased with what we want because I think we’re all very particular people, and we all are especially particular about our music and what we’re putting out into the world.
I think as much as people tell you not to be like perfectionists and stuff like that, naturally we all are going to want it to sound like it does in our head. But we’re slowly kind of finding our sound and slowly kind of finding ways to, like, produce that kind of stuff. But, it’s just doing it like one song at a time right now. Just trying to get it all out. Cause we’ve got what? Three unmixed songs from the 37.
We went to a studio and we, cut, like, four songs, and “Gutter” was one of those ones from that session which came out today. But there’s still two more from that, three more from that that we still need to get done.
Patrick: More music coming out very soon
Charlie: very soon
Will: Yes, very soon.
Fenton:I know you mentioned you’re more album oriented people, but do you guys think you’re more playlist people or album people? Because someone asked me like a week ago and I was like, I never thought about that.
Jack: I just like a song and then I shuffle the liked songs, because I can just go through and be like, “oh, I remember when I found this,” yeah, I was I would definitely make playlists.
Patrick: I do like scrolling down my liked songs. It’s super nice. Yeah. Brings it back.
Charlie: Or you can just like, play the same song over and over for a week and then find another song and then play that one over and over for a week and like,
Patrick: I don’t think I made a playlist in maybe years
Will: I think also we just all appreciate albums very much. When an artist can produce, like a 10 or 12 song thing, that’s just like a cohesive story, that is just.
Jack: Yeah, I think like one of the it’ll stand the test of time. Yeah, the singles come and go, but like bands that make good albums, it changes like the course of history.
Fenton: Do you guys kind of, like, have any. Bands or artists that just have been on repeat for you guys lately?
Charlie: Dove Ellis Oh, yeah.
Patrick: I put Charlie on that.
Charlie: He did absolutely incredible.
Charlie: Try to think what else I’ve been listening to. quickly, quickly. Someone I found as of yesterday. Very good. Um, like granular synth. indie. But he’s just like, the production is just pristine.
Patrick: I do listen to a lot of Faces recently. I’m coming back to Faces. It’s, uh, it’s Rod Stewart’s old band. It’s all been really good to me.
Jack: I’m back on The Doors. Hella doors.
Will: I’m actually there too
Jack: The Doors and Big Thief. Pond is produced by Kevin Parker from Tame Impala. So it’s literally just like Tame Impala, but more like psych rock.
Charlie: And Ee like a sound effect. I don’t know how you say it Ee or just E?
Will: Similar situation. I’ve been listening to a lot of, um, Stone Roses. They’re from the 90s, and they’re very bluesy. And then, god, I kind of came back to Fontaines D.C. here recently. Just been bumping, and then Black Grape another bands from the 90s been heavy into their stuff recently.
Jack: That boy is so tapped into the 90s.
Fenton: I haven’t been able to listen to anything besides like gigs and LCD Soundsystem. I’m like, stuck in New York, but I’m in Tennessee, so yeah, it’s been rough for me.
I guess I kind of just wrap up a bit, do you guys have anything else that you want people to know about you heading into 617 Day and beyond you as a band?
Jack: I mean, I want to say I just, I really appreciate the opportunity because, like the WERS, can you say WERS?
Fenton: I’ve heard people say WERS, W-E-R-S, people say anything.
Jack: But a bunch of people saw us and we were able to like, record with a really good producer, because he saw us on there, and it’s just really cool to have the opportunity to be highlighted again and to be put in situations where there’s other cool people who are really listening and want to work with us.
Patrick: I don’t think I speak for just myself when I say that we really like Emerson people.
Charlie: We really like Emerson people.
Patrick: They’re all really chill. Yeah they’re chillers. They’re driven. They’re all very creative. I’m also just excited to play outside. It’s been a long winter.
Will: It’s a great opportunity. I’ve always seen people play the Boston Common or whatever, or at these, like, you know, it’s one of those places where it’s like, that would just be such a cool place to play at because it’s so not something you see every day. And like we play in a lot of clubs, like we played a lot of house shows, we play in a lot of places. People play every night. Um, so it’s really nice to go to break outside of that. And I feel like it always generates a nice connection with the audience.
Patrick: It’s a little more uncommon.
Fenton: Well, it was nice to meet you guys.
KF: Nice to meet you too, take it easy.
